Wheat Grinding

One of my favorite childhood memories is wheat harvest! I remember going to my grandparents farm in Kansas and helping make sandwiches and pies during the week for all the guys who were out working in the fields... good memories.  My aunt is a wonderful bread baker and grinds wheat from harvest every year for flour.  She would always share some flour with me but lately I've been needing a lot more flour and the wheat flour in the stores just does not compare.  So this year, my family brought me some wheat from harvest and I finally got around to grinding it yesterday! I now have wheat flour to last me probably a year and I am really excited.  So here is the process of how we ground the wheat into flour.

Beautiful wheat!

The wheat grinder we used.  A sweet friend used to grind all her flour and bake all her bread for her family, she's pretty awesome. 

We poured the wheat into the top of the grinder.

And the flour comes out the bottom.

I'm excited for all the breads and new recipes to try with my flour.  More recipes to come soon!

Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

I always buy bananas at the store, especially when we go to Sam's.  Stephen and I don't really eat them too often, but I love to put them in smoothies and every once in a while I feel compelled to just eat a banana.  Needless to say, they always go bad before we eat them all.  I shouldn't say bad though because overripe bananas make the best breads and desserts! 

It has been a long week already, but finals are almost over and I am so ready! I decided to take a break today from studying to bake these delicious treats for my friends at school.  I was really at the point of mental exhaustion and don't think I could put anymore info in my brain.  I think it's safe to say we deserve these after the week we've had.  Especially since they include cream cheese frosting!

Banana Bars

1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 overripe bananas
1 5 oz. carton of plain Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package cream cheese (softened)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup butter (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar

 Cream together butter and sugar

 Add 2 eggs

 Then add Greek yogurt, vanilla, and bananas.  

 Combine baking soda, salt, and flour then add to the mixture.  

 Grease a 9x13 pan with butter and pour mixture into pan.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let the bars cool completely.  Combine ingredients for frosting and spread it over the bars (sorry, I ran out of light and energy to take pictures at this point.)

Enjoy!

These are a lot like banana bread, but with a more cake-like texture and of course, the frosting! I definitely recommend them and they're really easy!

Mom's Meatloaf

This is seriously one of my favorite meals my mom makes!  It takes me back to my childhood to after church dinner, Christmas, or any other special occasion and just reminds me of family.  It's so easy though that you don't have to wait for a special occasion to make it.  This version of meatloaf is vegetarian.  When my mom went vegetarian the thing she missed most was meatloaf, but this one is so good that meat eaters love it too and some can't even tell it's vegetarian.  Everyone is always asking for the recipe too so today's your day!  Make this for your next family dinner!

1 onion
1/2 cup butter
6-8 slices of bread
1 can of Worthington Vegeburger (or 1 pound of meat... I guess :)
4 eggs
1 cup cheese
Then a few shakes of garlic powder, sage, and parsley... just throw some in!

1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar

 Start with 6-8 slices of bread

Cut into cubes

Melt one stick of butter in a skillet

Chop one onion and saute in the butter

When the onions become translucent, add the bread cubes.  

Continue to saute for a few more minutes.

I use vegetarian burger but you could also use meat (1 lb.)

Add 4 eggs to the burger. 

 

Add the bread mixture to the burger and stir.

Then add some other seasonings like garlic powder, parsley, or sage... I just sprinkle some in. 

1 cup cheese... stir. 

Put mixture into a greased 8x8 casserole dish and smooth the top.

Then make the topping, just remember 1/2 cup of ketchup, brown sugar, and water. 

Pour on the top and bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. 

We usually bake a day or two before we plan to eat it, not sure why but it always tastes better when you reheat it a couple days later.  If you do it this way, bake for 45 minutes so it's not dry later. 

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate No-Bake Cookies

Stephen is back at camp this week and before he left, I wanted to send him with a special treat.  I saw these granola snacks on two peas and their pod and they looked so good and easy.  I didn't have all the ingredients so I changed them around a little bit and was so happy with the results!  They remind me of no-bake cookies my mom used to make but they have a little twist.  So if you have 15 minutes and a few ingredients, you can make these too!  Also, you don't have to turn on the oven, which is a major plus with the hot weather we've been having!  Hope you have a good week at camp Stephen! Lilly and I miss you!

2 cups oats
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup honey
2 Tablespoons butter
1 cup chocolate chips + 1/2 cup chocolate chips (to melt and drizzle on top!)

• Combine the oats and cereal in a bowl.
• In a medium saucepan, combine the peanut butter and butter until is melts a little and becomes a smooth mixture (this doesn't take but a few minutes)
• Add the peanut butter, honey, and chocolate chips to the cereal mixture and stir until it's well mixed.  
• Use a small cookie scoop and place cookies on wax paper. (It's important to pack the mixture into the scoop so it will stay in a ball) Allow them to sit for about 15 minutes or until set. 
• Melt the remaining chocolate chips, pour the chocolate into a ziploc bag, cut a small hole in the edge of the bag and drizzle! 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Layer Dessert

I had such a great time with my family last weekend.  All the cousins, aunts, uncles and my grandparents were in town for the Wagner Family Reunion and it was so fun to catch up with everyone!  It was especially crazy to see how much my little cousins Madelyn and Mia had grown up.  I hadn't seen them since my wedding we had a wonderful time hanging out.  I just love those girls!  We all had a great time being together, thanks to everyone who traveled to Tulsa so we could be together!

Anyway, I made this dessert while everyone was here.  It's good, it's classic, it's simple and always a hit.  This is actually Stephen's favorite dessert and he will tell you that I don't make it nearly enough. 

In my rush to get everything done last week, I didn't take pictures of the process but it's so simple all you do is make each layer and assemble it! 

Layer 1 - The crust!

2 cups flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 sticks butter

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Melt the butter, add the pecans and flour then stir.  Pat the mixture evenly into the bottom of the dish.  Bake 20 minutes then allow to cool completely before adding other layers.

Layer 2 - CreamWhip 

8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cups whipped cream (or cool whip)
1 cup powdered sugar

Add all ingredients together.  Make sure cream cheese is softened at room temperature.  When the crust is cool, layer in the mixture.

Layer 3 - Chocolate! or Lemon or Raspberry or Blueberry, or anything else you can imagine.

3 small pudding mixes (I used 2 chocolate and 1 vanilla)
4 cups cold milk

Again, mix together until pudding is formed then add to the other layers

Layer 4 - Whipped Cream

2 1/2 cups whipped cream and some sugar to taste or cool whip

Top it off with the remaining cool whip or whipped cream then add chopped pecans to the top if you like.  Stephen also like to add heath bites, just add them right before you serve it or they get soggy.

Note: Heavy whipping cream doubles in size when whipped.  So 2 cups of whipping cream will make the 4 cups of whipped cream you need for the dessert.  Or you can use a large container of cool whip and divide it for the 2 layers. 

Keep it in the refrigerator until you're ready to serve!  Enjoy!

The Family

Me, Melissa, Madeline

Love you guys!

Pesto Roasted Vegetables

I wrote this post a couple weeks ago but wasn't able to post the pictures so I finally came back around to it.  Enjoy it a little postponed! And I also apologize for the lack of posts, I've been in a baking slump lately, but more to come this week!

So, this week has been really great!  I had a short break from school this week and planned to get a lot accomplished.  I made lists and organized the lists and had every intention of completing each item.  Then, I decided to forget all about being productive and went to summer camp.  I really needed some time away and it was the perfect thing.  Stephen was the camp pastor this week at teen camp and I had a blast being with him.  We went swimming, made some pottery, did some painting, went to the lake, spent a little time in the kitchen and I was so excited to hear Stephen preach!  He has such a gift and it's great to see God use him!

Since I dropped everything and left so quick, I came home to an oddly stocked refrigerator.  Some things had gone bad and others needed used up so I decided to make this for dinner.  Roasting vegetables has become my favorite way to prepare veggies and adding the pesto was great too!  So here's how I did it, you can change it around to pick the veggies you like.

Pesto Roasted Vegetables

1 head cauliflower
1 head broccoli
3 small sweet potatoes
(could also add some green beans but mine had gone bad...)

pesto (see my previous post for this recipe)  Also, if you don't have enough basil for the pesto recipe, you can use some spinach, that's what I did today and it worked really well!

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and chop the vegetables into bite size pieces.

Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on the size you chop the veggies, you want them to be tender.

Toss with the pesto and enjoy! Such a simple and great side dish!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This is my favorite pie... seriously.  I love the mix of sweetness and tartness.  You don't have to do a lot of chopping or peeling so the mixture is really simple to make.  You can even buy a pre-made crust if you want.  I made a couple pies last weekend for Father's day and our dads loved them, Stephen was a little sad though that he missed out on all the pies so I made another one last night.   It was perfect and just hit the spot.  (Confession: I did the pre-made crust last weekend, I usually make my own crust but I was studying for a final and the pre-made was so convenient, it tasted great too).  So here it is...!

Pie Filling

1 carton of strawberries sliced(about 2-3 cups)
2 cups chopped rhubarb
3 Tablespoons corn starch
2/3 cups sugar (I think this is a good amount of sugar to give some sweetness but not being too sweet, you want to balance the tartness of the rhubarb).

Pie Crust

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups shortening
6-7 Tablespoons cold water

This crust recipe makes 2 pie crusts (top and bottom).  First combine the flour and salt.  Cut the shortening into the flour until the shortening is in small pieces.  Gradually add the water while working the crust with your hands to form a ball of dough.  Work quickly to not overwork the dough, it will become tough instead of light and flaky.  Then divide in half and roll out into the size of your pie pan.  It doesn't have to be perfect, it will taste good!

Slice the strawberries into a bowl

Then chop the rhubarb stalks 

(some rhubarb is red, the kind from my grandpa is green but it's all the same)

Combine strawberries and rhubarb then add the sugar and corn starch.  Stir until the mixture becomes smooth and the sugar is mixed in, it will look funny at first but just keep stirring.

Add the filling to your pie crust 

(I try to make sure the filling is really flat across the top of the pie so the crust will lay smooth on the pie.)

Put the top crust over the filling.

Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

Place foil or a pie crust protector around the edges to make sure the edges don't get too crispy.

Remove from oven and let cool for about 30 minutes to let the juices set up.  

Then enjoy while warm!